14. Great

Brucy Boy led us down the docks to a pair of houseboats that were now swarming with women. The larger one had white siding, while the slightly smaller one had been painted blue.

"The white one is the Couple's boat," Becca said, turning to JC and I. "Let's try to get moving in about thirty minutes?"

"Sounds good," I said.

"Man, I can't wait to be out on the water," JC agreed.

"Awesome, see you out there," Becca smiled, patting my arm again and then nodding for Ami to follow her on board the Single's boat.

JC and I boarded ours. There was a small porch-like area of deck at the back of the houseboat that had stairs leading to the roof of the house portion, which served as the main deck. A sliding glass door gave access to the interior, and we ducked inside into a somewhat cramped hallway - both of us turning a little sideways to feel comfortable. Four doors lined the corridor, each of them currently open as the girls had divided up the rooms between the couples and were busily unpacking and talking back and forth. Beyond the corridor the long, rectangular houseboat opened up into a kitchen area, and a lounge area beyond that. Another small porch deck was at the other end of the boat, with glass bay windows letting the lounge look out onto the water.

"Well hello there, handsome," Terra said to JC as we passed by the room she had claimed for her and JC.

"Hello, beautiful," he said. "Captain Juan Carlos, reporting for duty."

"Oh, I was talking about your tall friend," Terra teased him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," JC rolled his eyes. He swept her fit body up into his arms as Terra squawked in surprise and then turned and winked at me. "Sorry, just need to remind the woman who she's teasing."

I laughed and started shutting the door for him. "No worries. Nice to meet you, Terra."

"You too!" she whooped as JC turned and tossed her onto the bed.

Heather and Cattie had taken the room across from JC and Terra. Cattie grinned and waved to me as I stuck my head in the door, while Heather was unpacking a suitcase into the chest of drawers built into the wall.

"Hey," I said. "We're departing in like twenty-five minutes. Come on up top."

"Sounds good," Cattie nodded and pointed her thumb at the nearby wall. "Cassidy took the room next to ours."

"Sounds good," I said.

"Try not to get too loud with your grunting, yeah?" Heather said, turning and smirking over her shoulder. "If you keep us up at night, I'll return the favour. Cattie is a bit of a screamer when I really get going."

"Heather!" Cattie exclaimed, mostly for show but still blushing just a little. She grabbed a pillow from the bed and swung it at her girlfriend, thumping her back.

I laughed as Heather stood and turned, her imposing size looming for Cattie. "Are we doing this?" she asked.

"Maybe," Cattie grinned, holding the pillow in front of her for protection with a big, silly grin.

"Excuse us," Heather said to me. "Apparently I need to remind my girl who wears the pants in this relationship."

"Funny," I chuckled. "JC said something similar." I shut the door as Heather went to the porthole window and closed the curtains so that no one walking by on the dock would see what was happening.

I snorted and shook my head. We weren't even untied from the docks and two of the couples were already fooling around. Becca separating the group into Couples and Singles was starting to make a lot more sense.

At the next set of doors I stuck my head into the opposite room. Heels was lounging on the bed with earbuds in, a notepad in her hand as she wrote something and bopped her head to the music. Wanda was just coming out of the little en suite bathroom, carrying an empty cosmetics bag she must have unpacked. "Hey, we're shoving off in about twenty-five minutes," I said. "Meet us up top?"

"Sure," she nodded with a soft smile. "I'll let Heels know when she's done journaling."

"Great," I said and winked. As I turned away I felt a sense of deja vu. I winked? I wasn't a winker. I didn't wink at people. Why did I wink?

"Hey, Tiger," Cassidy said as I finally entered our little stateroom. Each of the rooms was the same, featuring a king-size bed squeezed into the cabin and dominating the space. Two sets of drawers were built into the far wall bracketing the door into the en suite. Our room was painted soft turquoise and had a bit of a sea turtle theme with prints framed on the walls. Cassidy was lying on her side of the bed, knowing I preferred the left side, and patted the sheets next to her.